I left New Zealand mid-2003, bound for Istanbul and a new lif. After two years, a Belgian guy lured me into his world, deep in the heart of Europe. For a long time I was an in-process immigrant. One day we married. These days it's about photography, a little red wine and wandering ... and so the journey goes.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

A Good Day out on Flanders Fields ...

I love travelling to Flanders Fields, some of my favourite Belgians live there and so I had been delighted to receive an invitation to the presentation of the Passchendaele: The Belgians have not forgotten Project

It is a project commemorating New Zealand's contribution to the first world war and it will travel from Belgium to Wellington to begin a tour of New Zealand in March 2009.

Gert and I wandered along, cameras in hand as always, expecting some speeches from the guest speakers and a luncheon however ...we got far more than we expected.

After the event we were invited along on the small bus carrying Helen Clark, the just ex-prime minister of New Zealand and her husband, Peter. Tim Barnett, a New Zealand member of parliament and his lovely partner, Ramon and Austin Mitchell, the British member of parliament and author, and his wife, Linda McDougall, journalist and tv producer were the passengers.

Freddy Declerck was our Passchendaele guide. He's both a world war one expert and a lovely man, so he made sure that our freezing cold tour was filled with laughter.

I always prefer to be the invisible photographer, observing without making too much noise but there was no chance of that with this lovely group of people.

Gert and I left smiling and hope to head back to the Fields soon, there were so many stories that came up along the way, they are surely deserving of a hearing ...